What do you get when you throw Renaissance Italy, queer angst, and electropop into a blender? The answer is Pop Off, Michelangelo!, a gloriously camp musical comedy that doesn’t so much rewrite history as throw it into a glitter cannon and fire it at the audience.
The premise is deliciously absurd: childhood friends Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci both realise they’re gay — which, in 15th-century Italy, is a fast track to eternal damnation. To avoid the flames of hell, the pair hatch a scheme to win God’s forgiveness by becoming the greatest religious artists of all time. Their ultimate goal? Get close enough to the Pope to ask him to put in a good word with the man upstairs. Can Michelangelo girlboss his way to Vatican approval? You’ll have to see for yourself.
In truth, the Renaissance backdrop is more of a plot device than a setting. The show thrives on camp exaggeration and knowingly ridiculous characters: a vape-toking Pope, Machiavelli reimagined as a cartoonish pizza delivery boy, and a gallery of historical figures gleefully bent out of shape. It’s knowingly inaccurate and doesn’t care.
Star power comes in the form of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series 5 queen Michael Marouli, playing a blinged-up Pope with a gold cape and glorious Geordie accent. The rest of the cast are just as fabulous, each bringing their own voice and identity to the roles. Aidan MacColl’s unapologetically Glaswegian Leonardo is a highlight, and the decision to let the actors keep their native accents gives the whole thing an inclusive, irreverent edge.
The musical numbers are where Pop Off, Michelangelo! truly shines. Backed by a live band, Dylan MarcAurele’s original electropop score delivers banger after banger, from witty lyrical numbers to full-throttle anthems that could easily soundtrack a night out. The songs are not just funny, but genuinely catchy — you’ll leave humming.
This isn’t a show that takes itself seriously, and that’s exactly why it works. It’s part drag spectacle, part queer celebration, part chaotic history lesson, though you’ll learn absolutely nothing accurate. Returning to Edinburgh after a smash-hit Fringe 2024 run and a stint in London, the revitalised production has only doubled down on its silliness and spectacle.
Pop Off, Michelangelo! is a queer anthem disguised as a musical, a joyously over-the-top celebration of LGBTQIA+ identity, creativity, and self-expression. For fans of Drag Race and lovers of camp comedy, it’s unmissable.
Image by Danny with a Camera, provided to The Student as press.
